7th February - Patong Beach to Ao Bang Thao

Friday 7^th February

So have I been swimming, here at beautiful Patong Beach?  Well no not really…there are so many big fat pink jellyfish in the water in is a bit inhibiting.  But yesterday afternoon I couldn’t resist.  There was a cloud of small silvery fish circling the boat; I just had to get in and be at one with nature, for just a few minutes. 

Pete kept a lookout for big fat pink jellyfish while I lay in the sea with my mask and enjoyed the cloud of fish.

He spent the morning intently studying maps, charts, Lonely Planet guides, trying to work out what we are doing for the next few months. He thought we might go to Burma/Myanmar, and yes, of course, I am keen.  We can fly there very cheaply, from Malaysia – it is very complicated to sail there.  (Not complicated in watery terms; complicated in bureaucratic terms.)  But…April (before the Wakefields join us in Langkawi) seems, from our reading, to be HELL in Burma.  Very hot – around 40 – and very crowded because it is local holiday and festival time, with not much chance of finding accommodation or food.  Wrong time wrong place!!  (Steaming hot, says Lonely Planet.)  Maybe another place beginning with B?  Bhutan??

In the afternoon we left our little outpost on Patong Beach (Hat Kalim) at last.  We sailed along the coast past dozens of resorts, mostly very big, and wondered how you would ever choose where to stay in Phuket, let alone in Thailand.  

On a cliff?  Near a big beach?  Near a little beach?

We are anchored in Ao Nag Thao, and it all seems very peaceful after the hectic crowds in the Patong Beach area.  We have to make our way to a marina because…there are still problems with the battery system, even after Pete spent ALL that time (months, actually,) researching the bests option, and then spent $2,500 getting it all installed and checked.

So….the first thing I did when we anchored was…have a soothing dip in the beautiful green water.  Bliss!

Leo’s birthday…eight today.  Like all of the children in our family, Leo is much loved.  And for very good reason.  He is thoughtful, kind, clever and loving.  His three little sisters are very lucky to have such a delightful and responsible big brother.  I particular enjoy his literal thinking.  When the children in his class were asked to write about how they read, most of them wrote fanciful little essays.  I lie in the grass in the shade and eat an apple while I read my book. And I imagine the soul of the writer coming through the pages.*  Or, When I have brushed my teeth I go to bed and Mummy reads to me and then I pat my fluffy quilt and…etc etc etc.  Leo wrote, baldly, I look at the page and read the words.  That’s my boy - what more needs to be said?

* I kid you not!  One of the little boys in Leo’s class, an intense child, did indeed write something along these lines.  His parents are…hippy artists.  Of course!